Pull Through Splitters Are Junk

[reddevil76]

Especially this Heritage splitter that I have. Its handle doesn't even lock in place! I have to put my left foot on it whenever I am splitting a piece which requires me to pull with both hands.

And why do the different splitters bother to vary the blade size from 4 to 8 inch when ALL of them can't split anything wider than 1.5 inch?

The only way I can split a 2.5 inch strap through this junk is to tie one end of the strap to the tail of an elephant and whip it!

I had accepted that I would have to buy leather in varying thickness to make different parts of the wallets. But sometimes a customer just wants a wallet made from the same side, and that's when I have to split 2.5 X 8 inch pieces & 3.5 X 8 inch pieces.

Last night I went to a leather shop to borrow the bell skiver, 6 beautifully cut pieces came out all skewed after skiving and finally I had to bin them.

Isn't there a better way to thin leather?

[Kevin]

You just need a band knife splitter, kinda like a bandsaw but horizontal. Just a few thousand and takes up the space of a dining room buffet.

Fine leathergoods are not easy.

Good luck,

Kevin

[amuckart]

Have you tried a crank splitter?

[reddevil76]

Have you tried a crank splitter?

Would love to! But I live in Singapore and shipping that monster over would kill me..

[hidepounder]

I don't share your views on pull through splitters. I just used mine to split a 5" wide piece of leather down to about 4/5 oz last night. If you can't pull a piece of 2"-3" leather through your splitter with a minimum of effort then your splitter blade is NOT sharp. I split belt blanks a lot with a pull through style splitter with no effort. Of course if I could a find a band knife splitter that I could afford, I'd have one, but until then I'm splitting with a pull through style splitter.

Bobby

[cem]

Would love to! But I live in Singapore and shipping that monster over would kill me..

Cost me $285 USD to ship the Weaver one to Australia using Fed Ex, which I don't think is that bad considering it weighs alot, I split funny shaped things and the pull throughs just wouldn't work for me. It was money well spent I woudn't be without my handcrank now.

Clair

[reddevil76]

I don't share your views on pull through splitters. I just used mine to split a 5" wide piece of leather down to about 4/5 oz last night. If you can't pull a piece of 2"-3" leather through your splitter with a minimum of effort then your splitter blade is NOT sharp. I split belt blanks a lot with a pull through style splitter with no effort. Of course if I could a find a band knife splitter that I could afford, I'd have one, but until then I'm splitting with a pull through style splitter.

Bobby

I do strop it after every use. One thing though, could be the blade position. When I first got it, it shifted after the 4th to 5th skive. It could never work well after that.

I emailed the seller and after one reply to find out the problem, he promptly "disappeared".

Cost me $285 USD to ship the Weaver one to Australia using Fed Ex, which I don't think is that bad considering it weighs alot, I split funny shaped things and the pull throughs just wouldn't work for me. It was money well spent I woudn't be without my handcrank now.

Clair

Clair, does the patterns maintain their shape after splitting?

[cem]

Clair, does the patterns maintain their shape after splitting?

Yes as long as you don't try and split it down too much to begin with e.g don't go from 10oz to 3oz do a split in between if you want thin stuff. I usually do a rough cut of the shape though and just put that through the splitter then trim it to the final shape this is mainly due to how I transfer a carving design though.

I use a Klic N Kut Maxx 15 (like a vinyl cutter with a pen attachment) and I like a little bit of extra border on the leather just in case the Maxx is off a bit with it's calibration from the edge.

Cheers,

Clair

[dirtclod]

Red Devil try adjusting the blade if it's to close to the roller or crooked it won't cut right. Or it's that way on mine.

[amuckart]

Have a read of http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/

It's about plane blades, but it's just as applicable to splitter blades.

[reddevil76]

thanks all... gonna muck around with my splitter tonight with all these suggestions..

[hidepounder]

I do strop it after every use. One thing though, could be the blade position. When I first got it, it shifted after the 4th to 5th skive. It could never work well after that.

Your blade position is critical and I'll bet you're right, that's probably the biggest problem. However, I also think you are stropping too much. You can dull your blade by over stropping as quickly as you can by splitting. When you strop it is pretty tough to not "round" your edge. The same thing happens to us when we strop our swivel blade knives, utility and head knives. The only real way to prevent "rounding" is to use a jig to strop with. So you really don't want to strop unless ytou really need to.

I emailed the seller and after one reply to find out the problem, he promptly "disappeared".

That's frustrating.....it's happened to me too! In the long run I probably ended up learning more so that now I don't need the help, but that didn't make it any less stressful, LOL!.

[reddevil76]

Your blade position is critical and I'll bet you're right, that's probably the biggest problem. However, I also think you are stropping too much. You can dull your blade by over stropping as quickly as you can by splitting. When you strop it is pretty tough to not "round" your edge. The same thing happens to us when we strop our swivel blade knives, utility and head knives. The only real way to prevent "rounding" is to use a jig to strop with. So you really don't want to strop unless ytou really need to.

That's frustrating.....it's happened to me too! In the long run I probably ended up learning more so that now I don't need the help, but that didn't make it any less stressful, LOL!.

I take a really dense piece of leather, glue it to a piece of flat wood, apply white jeweler's rough to the flesh side, and slide it across the blade in one direction.

Anyway, after trying many blade positions and going through a bag of scraps, it is finally working better. Yay!

[amuckart]

Glad to hear it's working better for you. If you want to get that blade *really* sharp, pick up a few sheets of 3M microfinishing abrasive and use them stuck to a sheet of thick glass. build a jig to hold the angle and you'll have something that'll split like a dream.

[jimsaddler]

Position of the Roller is critical! For splitting to light weights it should be fractionally behind to top dead centre. Sharpening must be done with a flat Knife board with 2 sides. Coarse and Fine ( Rouge is good) or use Valve Grinding Paste worked into a 3 mm piece of Flesh side Veg, glued onto a 3" X 3/4" X 18 to 20 " board with a handle cut into one end. Keep the Board at a low angle when sharpening and spread the strokes from side to side evenly across the Blade. If there is too much Shoulder on the Blade. Take it to a Tool Sharpener to grind it off to save a lot of time (hours) grinding it off. I cheat sometimes and do a quick Buff on the Calico Buff wheel but no more than twice or you'll get too much Shoulder to sharpen off.

If its a 6" splitter you can split 5" carefully down to .4MM by gradually taking it off in small amounts at a time. Remember that the Blade must be perfectly straight in relation to the Roller, same gap each side. Patience is the name of the game when sharpening the Blade. Don't cheat when it's taking forever to get the shoulder off, by changing the angle to finish quicker. Do it properly once and it's right for years. Cheat and you'll only get Scraps because of the need for Elephants to pull the Leather through. If it's done right it will take very little effort.

I Hope this helps you. As I seldom have to worry because of the 2 days I put into getting the Blade right a few years ago. Use the same Knife Board for your Round and Straight Knives also.

My Board is always by my right hand on the Leg of the Bench for quick access and use.

Kindest Regards.

Jim Saddler.

Glad to hear it's working better for you. If you want to get that blade *really* sharp, pick up a few sheets of 3M microfinishing abrasive and use them stuck to a sheet of thick glass. build a jig to hold the angle and you'll have something that'll split like a dream.

[reddevil76]

Thank you all... I will look into how I can better sharpen the blade.

As for its position, the manufacturer didn't make any markings on it or on the splitter itself, so I can only eyeball it when positioning it..

[hidepounder]

I take a really dense piece of leather, glue it to a piece of flat wood, apply white jeweler's rough to the flesh side, and slide it across the blade in one direction.

I'm sure you already know this, but in case someone reading doesn't, it is important that your stropping surface be very rigid. Like Jim mentioned, 3mm (or less). I like the really dense thin card stocks. They will hold rouge but won't compress causing rounding at the cutting edge. I have really noticed the difference on my swivel knife.....I have to sharpen substantially less since I've started stropping on thin rigid materials.

[Shane in Baton Rouge]

There is a decent looking crank splitter for sale in Australia on ebay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-INDUSTRIAL-AMERICAN-ST-LOUIS-LEATHER-SPLITTER-TOOL-/300570765027?pt=AU_ToolsHardwareLocks&hash=item45fb69e6e3#ht_3626wt_1139

Its heavy, and too much to ship to the u.s. but may be something that would interest you...

[reddevil76]

Thanks Shane, but I need to split 8 inches wide pieces.. This looks like it splits straps only.. But thanks for looking out.

[Vwoodard]

I concure with the others comments about the sharpness of the blade. I purchased a used osborne pull thru splitter, and was doing good to split a piece of 3/4" wide latigo thru it. I sharpened it using the method in one of the Al Stolman books, and got it to the point I could split a piece of 1 1/4" veg tan with a little effort. A friend who is good with tool sharpening, saw me struggling at a show I was at with it, and offered to sharpen it. I figured what the heck, why not. He spent about an hour using what is known as the Scary Sharp method of sharpening (about what the others have posted on here for sharpening) and the thing was so sharp that I damn near fell out of my chair backwards because it cut not only the 1 1/4" wide like i was cutting HOT butter, it went thru a piece of 3" wide the same way.

I am sure the positioning may have a little to do with it, but, the sharpening made a believer of me... It's time to do it again, but it was well worth the time and effort!

Vince

[Mijo]

I wanted to bump this thread and thank all of the people that posted tips. I ordered an osborne 86 pull through splitter and it arrived early this week. the instructions that came with it were next to useless and I struggled with it for a couple of hours before I gave up. After than I started going through some of the threads and found the information in this one to be the most helpful. Once I got the blade / roller adjusted correctly it was smooth sailing, I didn't have enough of the roller directly under the blade when I first started. Thanks again guys...